Bitcoin Pioneer ‘Jeff Garzik’ Gave Away Over $100m in Bitcoin

Mr Jeff Garzik became the third-biggest contributor to bitcoin’s code and remained so through 2014

Jeff Garzik does not regret act but says what matters is that digital currency is still around

Mr Jeff Garzik started writing software code for bitcoin (btc) after reading a blog post about the digital currency in July 2010. At the time, he was working remotely for open-source powerhouse Red Hat from a vehicle parked in an empty lot in Raleigh, North Carolina.

He soon became the third-biggest contributor to bitcoin’s code after the cryptocurrency’s anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto and developer Gavin Andresen, and remained so through 2014. Looking back 10 years after its creation, Mr Garzik said he is proud, even though bitcoin is not what he envisioned it would become.

“As a father, I enjoy watching my kids grow up, even as they make mistakes or grow in ways that I wouldn’t expect,” said Mr Garzik, who has given away bitcoin valued at more than US$100 million based on current prices.

During the initial period, Mr Garzik, 44, worked directly with Nakamoto, corresponding via private e-mail and the Bitcointalk forum, until the token’s creator abruptly disappeared in 2011.

Since then, former collaborators and journalists have been guessing who he or she or they were – a matter of importance since Nakamoto controls about one million bitcoins, and could impact the cryptocurrency’s market price.

“My personal theory is that it’s Floridian Dave Kleiman,” Mr Garzik said in an phone interview.

“It matches his coding style, this gentleman was self-taught. And the bitcoin coder was someone who was very, very smart, but not a classically trained software engineer.”

According to eToro senior market analyst Mati Greenspan, bitcoin is in amidst a parabolic bull cycle and is on track to sustain its strong momentum over the medium to long term.

Since January, within less than six months, the bitcoin price has increased by nearly 100 percent against the U.S. dollar.

With a 98% gain year-to-date, bitcoin has outperformed most assets in 2019
(source: coinmarketcap.com)

Still, despite its large short-term rally, Greenspan noted that the dominant cryptocurrency is only at the start of a bigger cycle that may lead to new highs for the asset.

WHY INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES ARE SO OPTIMISTIC IN BITCOIN

In December 2018, the bitcoin price dropped to its lowest yearly point at $3,150. At the time, even though the industry had demonstrated significant progress in improving the infrastructure supporting the asset class, the sentiment around…

World’s third largest cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) has appreciated up to 31-percent against the US dollar in just two days.

The XRP-to-dollar exchange rate Tuesday established an intraday high towards $0.405, up 25.05% since the market open on Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. The pair dropped as much as 5.05-percent ahead of the European session to neutralize its overbought sentiments, finding interim support at $0.384-level.

RIPPLE (XRP) SURGES 25% IN A DAY | SOURCE: TRADINGVIEW.COM, BITSTAMP

The sentiment was the same across the rest of the cryptocurrency index, with almost all the leading cryptocurrency posting surplus intraday gains. Bitcoin (BTC), for instance, extended its rally action to establish a new 2019 peak towards $8,836.19. Ethereum, EOS, and Bitcoin Cash too recorded double-digit percentage gains on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe.

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Facebook, the largest social media giant, made news after it announced that it would launch its own cryptocurrency, Facebook Coin. It was also rumoured that Facebook was looking out for VC firms to invest in their cryptocurrency project, with the targeted sum being “as much as $1 billion.”

Now, according to an official announcement, Facebook is going to lift its ban on cryptocurrency and blockchain related ads on its platform.

The facebook statement read :

“Starting 5 June, we will update our Prohibited Financial Products and Services Policy to no longer allow ads promoting contracts for difference [CFDs], complex financial products that are often associated with predatory behaviour. These products, due to their complexity, often mislead people.”

Facebook had implemented the ban on cryptocurrency ads and promotional campaigns related to blockchains and ICOs back in January 2018. It was believed that the ban was to tackle concerns…

Craig Wright, a man who, as WIRED wrote about back in 2016, either created Bitcoin or very badly wants someone to believe he did.

Now rumours are swirling through the Bitcoin world that Wright himself is poised to publicly claim—and possibly offer some sort of proof—that he really is Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin. If he does, he’ll have to convince a highly skeptical cryptography community for whom “proof” is a serious word, and one that requires cryptographic levels of certainty.

The suggestion is that Wright, an Australian cryptographer and security professional, has arranged to perform a demonstration for media in London sometime in the next week that’s intended to convince the world he’s bitcoin’s creator.1 Luckily for any legitimate claimant to the Satoshi throne—and for bitcoiners tired of the long succession of unproven candidates and speculation—there are some clear, almost incontrovertible ways for Satoshi Nakamoto to prove himself. When…